Midway Arcade Treasures 3

Overview

There are those days where you look at the collection of games you own and just say I remember the good old days where I played San Francisco Rush for ten hours straight. To be honest, that is actually something I have done several times, maybe not particularly the Rush games but rather the classics in general. Well Midway Games has been coming out with some interesting compilations of some of their classics, and this time follows a racing theme with Midway Arcade Treasures 3 for the Xbox. So does this game make you want to go run out and buy it? Read our full review to find out!

Gameplay

When compilations come they are kind of the harder to review, as you don’t know if you should be reviewing the individual games in the compilation or just the overall compilation itself. So in order to properly review this game I will do both and start off with the list of included games in the package:
Badlands
Hydro Thunder
Off Road Thunder: Mud, Sweat ’N Gears
Race Drivin’
San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition
San Francisco Rush 2049
S.T.U.N. Runner
Super Off Road & Bonus Tracks Pack

Now the first thing people do when they see that list is say, wow that doesn’t seem like many games. Although on face value it may not seem like it, a lot of these games were not released all that long ago, so these are pretty full games compared to some of the older titles. Plus if they had just come out with a port of the original San Francisco Rush 2049, most people would be happy as it truly was an amazing game and it was a pleasure to see this game on the list.

To be honest I have to say the games on this list are some of the most exciting ones I have seen on any compilation list. The developers did a fantastic job of taking these games from their original state and making them feel almost identical on the Xbox. The porting of these games was as close as you can get to spot on, and let’s just say there are only some really minor issues in some of the games. Controlling all of these games is great and all of the games really have a unique flavor, so you will have a lot of variety in the games you have on the list. Rush the Rock and Offroad Thunder are the only games in the list that do not have multiplayer support, which means for the most part all of the games do include this feature, which is an essential to the games success.

I have to say that the developers did an amazing job porting all of these games to the Xbox. You have to also give them credit for choosing a great list of games to put in a compilation, as they have plenty of depth to each game, and like I mentioned earlier, also have quite a bit of variety, which is always a good thing. Midway Arcade Treasures 3 in the gameplay standpoint is a great port and a great lineup of games.

Graphics

I would say that the ports of these games for the most part hold up pretty well on the Xbox with very few problems in terms of porting the game. When I look at Midway Treasures 3 I see that the developers did a fantastic job of getting these games to looking as close as they could to the originals. Like I mentioned earlier though, the game is not perfect, but do a good enough job to really make for a very smooth looking experience.

Fun Factor

Like I said earlier, the list of games in compilation is good in two ways. First off, the game does a fantastic job of giving you plenty of variety, in terms of games to choose from, with games that go on the road, on the dirt and even on the ice. The other thing that is great about this compilation is that it has the two Rush titles, which are some of my all time favorite games, and to have them on this compilation is a great thing. With a smooth port and some great variety in terms of games to choose from, this compilation is a lot of fun.

Overall

Midway Arcade Treasure 3 once again has a good number of games to choose from in this compilation, and although it may have been nice to have more games on the list, for twenty dollars you really can’t complain. If you are a fan of SF Rush 2049, that may be reason enough to go run out and purchase this game. If not, there are seven other solid games that make this compilation a very worthwhile purchase.

Joel Szerlip

The owner and editor-in-chief of Darkstation.com. I've been apart of the website since 2002 and purchased the website in 2010. Owning and running Darkstation is a dream come true. I love video games and I love writing and talking about them even more.

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